Bolano Parana Tresana

Loop route that starts from the new bridge over the Magra near Albiano to start climbing toward the village of Bolano on asphalt road. Still on asphalt, you arrive at the peak of the climb to meet the path of the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri and begin here the off-road part.

The path is quite wide and partly drivable even by off-road vehicles, the bottom is fair even if the climb in some places is rather arduous. The trail twice meets asphalt roads that join the Val di Magra to the Val di Vara after which it continues to climb until about 900 m where the Alta Via is abandoned to begin the descent to Parana. The descent although wide and with not excessive gradients is rather challenging due to the presence of rather large pebbles that the gravel does not always digest at its best.

When you reach the hamlet of Parana the road continues on the right to continue a more pleasant descent through the woods to the hamlet of Tresana where the asphalt begins again to return to the start of the bridge over the Magra. In the first part the view is of the Val di Vara with glimpses of the Ligurian Sea while in the second part there are glimpses of the remarkable Apuan Alps.

The route is not technically difficult although the gradients in some places require good preparation, there are alternatives with shorter routes that return to the start at several points in case of crisis. The route is classified as Tuscan but actually straddles Liguria and Tuscany.

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